It remains to be seen if all the talk about housing leads to tangible results.

Pam Marino here, at the start of what you could call “housing month” in Monterey County. Suddenly there are a bevy of gatherings all focused on the challenge of bringing more housing to the region. 

The month kicked off yesterday, Nov. 5 with the day-long Salinas Regional Housing Summit in downtown Salinas, convened by Mayor Dennis Donohue as part of his four-pronged plan to address housing, announced in June after a majority of the Salinas City Council repealed four housing-related ordinances passed by the last council, that included a rent stabilization ordinance. (The repeal was successfully challenged by a grassroots referendum in September and will go to voters in November 2026.)

On the plus side, the summit brought together policymakers, developers, employers, city and county planners and others to talk about housing. On the negative side, the speakers during the first half of the day were from out of the area and didn’t seem to understand Salinas’ unique population and its constraints.

One overriding message was “build more single-family homes because that’s what people want.” Based on numerous polls, that may be true but there are conflicting realities to consider.

Salinas has a median household income of around $85,000—Stonebridge Vice President Hugh Walker told the audience that it costs his company about $700,000 to build a single home. People who can afford single-family homes will likely commute long distances, putting more cars on the road. The homes require lots of land—Salinas is landlocked by prime agricultural fields, which means there’s a limit to what can ultimately be built.

And given that it can take decades for housing developments to get built, there was no mention of what current residents can do to deal with a lack of affordable rentals.

The usual blame for the housing crisis was cast on the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, plus Sacramento leaders and bureaucrats, among other usual suspects. The solutions presented were mostly beyond the control of local jurisdictions.

The second half of the day was better, with a panel of local developers (and the City of Salinas Community Development Director Lisa Brinton) and a panel on workforce housing. Developers said they could use more collaboration with planners to minimize delays, more plans approved ministerially, instead of through administrative hearings. 

There are three more housing events coming up: Today and tomorrow is the Monterey Attainable Housing Forum hosted by nonprofit Regenerative California at the Asilomar Conference Grounds, which promises to be more solutions focused, with a look at utilizing untapped sources of capital and innovative financing; the group will follow that with a virtual debriefing from 1-2pm on Tuesday, Nov. 18.

Finally, the Salinas Planning and Research Corporation and the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce host “The Salinas Community’s Action Plan: A Results-Oriented Solution to Housing Production,” from 8am-noon on Thursday, Nov. 20. It’s a free public forum; registration can be found here.

Let’s hope all this talk during “housing month” translates into positive action.